Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what provisions will be made for children over 18 months who have missed the initial two-dose chickenpox vaccine schedule.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

On 29 August, the Government announced plans to introduce chickenpox (varicella) vaccination into the routine childhood immunisation schedule from 1 January 2026. Eligible children will receive an MMRV vaccine during routine general practice (GP) appointments, which protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.

Eligibility will primarily be based on a child’s age on 1 January 2026, and not whether a child has previously received an MMR vaccine. The eligibility criteria, including which age groups will receive the vaccine, will be announced ahead of the programme launch.

It is important that children continue to come forward for their vaccinations when they are due, including the MMRV vaccine when it is available.

As with other childhood immunisations, parents will be contacted by their GP surgery to arrange an appointment if their child is eligible. The National Health Service and GP practices send reminders to families of those who are not fully vaccinated, and will provide catch-up doses to children who have missed any jabs.

Parents and carers can contact their GP surgery to check their child’s vaccination record and arrange a catch-up appointment, and details of vaccinations can also be found in a child’s Red Book.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2025 to Question 73363 on Manchester Airport: Air Traffic Control, whether her Department has had correspondence with individual airlines operating out of Manchester airport on (a) European air traffic control and (b) its potential impact on flight (i) arrivals and (ii) departures.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Department Ministers and officials meet regularly with UK airlines, including those that operate out of Manchester Airport, to discuss resilience issues such as impacts on UK operations from delays in European airspace.

The UK is a member of EUROCONTROL, a Pan-European inter-governmental body, which is responsible for working with Member States and their Air Navigation Service Providers to ensure that the airspace across Europe is used efficiently.

My department has and continues to engage with European states and industry to discuss air traffic control capacity and mitigations to delays which impact UK airspace users and passengers.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2025 to Question 73362 on Air Traffic Control: EU Countries, what representations her Department has made to other Eurocontrol members on delays at Manchester Airport caused by (a) inadequate air traffic control staffing levels and (b) out-of-date systems.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The UK is a member of EUROCONTROL, a Pan-European inter-governmental body, which is responsible for working with Member States and their Air Navigation Service Providers to ensure that the airspace across Europe is used efficiently.

My Departmental officials have and continue to engage with European states to discuss European air traffic control resilience issues including resourcing and operating systems that impact UK operations users including those travelling to and from Manchester Airport.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Food Standards Agency on the regulation of imported protein (a) powders and (b) supplements.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is the lead department for food safety, including food supplements. Local authorities, and district councils in Northern Ireland, are the enforcers of food law in their respective local authority areas. The FSA produces advice and guidance for businesses, local authorities and consumers.

While food supplements, including those that are imported, are not required to receive pre-market approval before being placed on the United Kingdom market, there is a legal duty on businesses to only place onto the market food that is safe. The FSA provides guidance for businesses to aid legal compliance and provides clarity to local authorities in the form of a toolkit to help support enforcement.

The FSA also provides advice for consumers on the consumption of food supplements containing caffeine, and it is currently working on general food supplements advice aimed at helping consumers consume supplements safely.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the National Planning Policy Framework in delivering sustainable drainage.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 44742 on 22 April 2025.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to strengthen statutory requirements on developers to (a) deliver and (b) maintain sustainable drainage systems.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 44742 on 22 April 2025.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Independent Football Regulator will be required to publish an annual report detailing the number of (a) individuals and (b) entities it assessed under the ownership and directorship tests.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Section 14 of the Football Governance Act requires the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) to publish an annual report, to include a summary of activities undertaken that year. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport can direct the IFR to include specific information.

Details of the exact content of the IFR’s annual report are being considered by the organisation and are not yet finalised.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Independent Football Regulator will have the power to retrospectively investigate incumbent owners or directors in instances where new information comes to light after their appointment.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) will have the ability to test incumbent owners and officers where it has grounds for concern over their suitability. If an incumbent owner or officer is found to be unsuitable, the IFR has a strong suite of powers to remove them. This approach reduces unnecessary burdens on suitable owners and proportionately targets testing where there is a risk of harm to clubs.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent the (a) sale and (b) production of skimming devices used fraudulently steal card details.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Home Office announced that an expanded fraud strategy will be published later this year, as part of the government’s Plan for Change, with a key focus of the strategy being combatting tech-enabled fraud.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help tackle regional variations in the uptake of the Advice and Guidance scheme; and what support is being provided to regions with lower adoption rates.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, outlines actions to significantly increase the use of Advice and Guidance (A&G), including reducing geographic variation. This includes the introduction of funding from April 2025 for general practitioners to recognise the importance of their role in ensuring patient care takes place in the most appropriate setting, as well as developing supporting resources such as an A&G toolkit with guidance for commissioners, referrers and secondary care clinical teams.

The Department and NHS England closely monitor progress on A&G volumes, and there are robust mechanisms for system oversight and reporting. This includes the operational delivery framework for integrated care boards. The framework sets out a roadmap to help services develop their ability expand and improve their use of A&G across seven themes and with a set of minimum standards for best practice. This is helping NHS England work with local teams to address known barriers causing variation of uptake in A&G, including use of digital platforms, improving the quality of A&G, and workforce planning, training and development.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has has made of the potential impact hospital specialists providing advice through the Advice and Guidance scheme on their workload; and whether additional (a) resources and (b) staffing have been provided to specialist departments to manage this increased demand for consultation.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Advice and Guidance (A&G) is a proven method of reducing unnecessary referrals into elective care, by diverting potential referrals where specialist advice determines that the most appropriate setting for care is in primary or community settings. Unnecessary referrals can waste valuable clinical time assessing and or treating patients in secondary care who could be cared for in the community. Allocating existing resources and staff time to handling A&G requests reduces demand for first outpatient appointments where a referral to secondary care is not considered necessary, so where referrals are made, they are a good use of patient and clinician time and result in the most appropriate treatment.

NHS England is leading a programme of work to improve clinical job planning to support trusts to provide high quality and timely A&G responses back to general practitioners alongside their existing work with patients. There are also robust mechanisms for system oversight and reporting on A&G, including the operational delivery framework for integrated care boards to identify and help resolve local operational barriers to delivering increased A&G volumes.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made provision for the ability of the Independent Football Regulator to require an owner to divest from a club to be subject to (a) Ministerial oversight and (b) parliamentary scrutiny.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Football Governance Act establishes an operationally independent regulator. The Act does not provide for any ongoing ministerial or parliamentary role in the IFR’s ownership tests. This is to stop undue political interference in football.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the level of demand for skilled carpenters in the housebuilding sector over the next five years.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 32067 on 3 March 2025.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the number of leaseholders currently paying ground rents above £250 per year.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government is committed to addressing unregulated and unaffordable ground rents and we will do this in legislation. We will set out further details on our detailed plans for existing ground rents in due course.

Data on ground rents is collected as part of the English Housing Survey and published in the leasehold experience fact sheet. The latest publication found that 77% of leaseholders currently pay a ground rent with an average ground rent of £304. This publication includes information on ground rents by region.

High ground rents which escalate rapidly create affordability issues both directly through the increased cost leaseholders face by also by making it harder for leaseholders to mortgage or sell their properties. In a 2023 survey undertaken by Propertymark, a leading membership body for property agents, 78 per cent of their members reported that a leasehold property with an escalating ground rent will struggle to sell, even if priced correctly.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment she has made of the [potential impact of ground rents on the affordability of leasehold homes.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government is committed to addressing unregulated and unaffordable ground rents and we will do this in legislation. We will set out further details on our detailed plans for existing ground rents in due course.

Data on ground rents is collected as part of the English Housing Survey and published in the leasehold experience fact sheet. The latest publication found that 77% of leaseholders currently pay a ground rent with an average ground rent of £304. This publication includes information on ground rents by region.

High ground rents which escalate rapidly create affordability issues both directly through the increased cost leaseholders face by also by making it harder for leaseholders to mortgage or sell their properties. In a 2023 survey undertaken by Propertymark, a leading membership body for property agents, 78 per cent of their members reported that a leasehold property with an escalating ground rent will struggle to sell, even if priced correctly.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve safety on the M6 motorway.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Safety is National Highways' top priority, and it regularly reviews safety performance. It will be undertaking a route safety study for the M6 this financial year, which it expects to complete by March 2026.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with (i) TfL and (ii) the Mayor of London on the cost of TfL strikes on the North West economy over the last 12 months.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

As transport in London is devolved to TfL, the Mayor of London is managing the impact of strike action on London’s transport network. Nevertheless, the Government understands this is disappointing for passengers and businesses and we continue to encourage all sides to work together to resolve this dispute as quickly as possible.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing (a) penalties and (b) redress mechanisms where leaseholders were not properly informed about the (i) risks and (ii) financial obligations associated with their lease.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, property listings must not omit information that the average consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision.

On 9 February, the government announced action to improve the availability of property information. This will help transactions run more smoothly by ensuring all parties are able to access the information they need at the right time.

In addition, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 contains measures to protect leasehold homeowners, including specific measures to improve the home buying and selling process by ensuring information required to sell a leasehold home is accessible at a reasonable cost. We will be consulting on the secondary legislation that is required to switch on these measures in due course.

We continue to work with stakeholders across industry, government, and the public sector to understand the most effective way of supporting buyers to make the right decisions.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of information provided to prospective homebuyers regarding the (a) terms and (b) implications of leasehold ownership at the point of sale.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, property listings must not omit information that the average consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision.

On 9 February, the government announced action to improve the availability of property information. This will help transactions run more smoothly by ensuring all parties are able to access the information they need at the right time.

In addition, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 contains measures to protect leasehold homeowners, including specific measures to improve the home buying and selling process by ensuring information required to sell a leasehold home is accessible at a reasonable cost. We will be consulting on the secondary legislation that is required to switch on these measures in due course.

We continue to work with stakeholders across industry, government, and the public sector to understand the most effective way of supporting buyers to make the right decisions.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to require estate agents and other sellers of residential property to include risk warnings in property listings where the tenure is leasehold.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, property listings must not omit information that the average consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision.

On 9 February, the government announced action to improve the availability of property information. This will help transactions run more smoothly by ensuring all parties are able to access the information they need at the right time.

In addition, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 contains measures to protect leasehold homeowners, including specific measures to improve the home buying and selling process by ensuring information required to sell a leasehold home is accessible at a reasonable cost. We will be consulting on the secondary legislation that is required to switch on these measures in due course.

We continue to work with stakeholders across industry, government, and the public sector to understand the most effective way of supporting buyers to make the right decisions.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2025 to Question 72990 on Mobile Scooters: Safety, whether he plans to consult members of the public in the review.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

As part of the review of the law covering powered mobility devices, we will run a public consultation on potential changes to the legislation.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help ensure that advertising of protein powders on social media is (a) accurate and (b) age-appropriate for young audiences.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Advertising Standards Authority regulates advertising in the UK across traditional forms of media and online. The UK Code of Non-Broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing, by the Committee for Advertising Practice, requires marketing communications to be legal, decent, honest and truthful. It includes rules on advertising to children, and on food, food supplements, and associated health or nutrition claims.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms likely to be accessed by children must protect children from harmful and age-inappropriate content including eating disorder content and content which encourages self-administering of harmful substances.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what responsibilities remain on liquidators of housing developers for resolving (a) legal title and (b) infrastructure issues impacting homeowners.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

A liquidators’ statutory functions when winding up a company are to secure and realise any assets, distribute any funds generated to those entitled to them and generally act in the interests of the company’s creditors. In carrying out their statutory functions, liquidators are also obliged to have regard to their regulatory standards and code of ethics. This may extend to resolving legal title and infrastructure issues affecting homeowners if doing so is in creditors’ interests.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that (a) contractors and (b) subcontractors used by her Department publish accounts in line with HMRC requirements.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

Contractors under direct contract with agreements over £10k are bound by contract terms to both uphold the laws of the land and to not bring the Secretary of State into disrepute.

This includes responsibility for any subcontractors they engage.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of environmental protection legislation to limit noise pollution from roadworks in built-up areas on weekends.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is committed to ensuring that noise is managed effectively to promote good health and minimise disruption to people’s quality of life.

Section 60 of the Control of Pollution Act allows Local Authorities to address noise from construction sites, including roadworks, by serving a notice imposing requirements as to how the construction may be carried out. This notice may specify a range of conditions, including hours during which the work can be carried out, and the level of noise that may be emitted during specific hours. While there the law does not specify permitted hours for works, weekend work involving noise is commonly restricted to the hours between 8am and 1pm on a Saturday, although there may be circumstances where a Local Authority deems the work to be of sufficient priority for work to be carried out outside of these hours.

In all cases, Local Authorities are required under the Control of Pollution Act to ensure best practicable means are employed to minimise noise and protect people in the locality from the effects of noise. The law is designed to enable decisions to be made while taking into account the specifics of a local context.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of a levy on international student fees on UK university-led Research and Development capacity.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

In the Immigration White Paper, the government committed to exploring a levy on international student fees. At this stage, no decisions have been taken on the size or implementation of any proposed levy by DfE. As such, DSIT has not made any formal assessment on the impact of university led R&D. If implemented, the levy would ensure that revenue from international students is more widely shared, and their contributions felt throughout our communities. We are committed to engaging the sector on the design of any potential levy and want to understand specific concerns providers have as early as possible.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has received any recent representations from (a) individual and (b) organisations on the standard of maintenance of (i) tactile cones and (ii) other pedestrian crossing aids for blind and visually sighted people; and what recent discussions she has had with local authorities on the maintenance of (A) tactile cones and (B) other pedestrian crossing aids for blind and visually sighted people.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department has not received any such representations. The provision and maintenance of tactile cones and other pedestrian crossing aids are matters for local authorities. Local authorities have a duty under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to provide for the safe movement of road users, including pedestrians. They also have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to provide accessible services.

The Department has endorsed the code of practice ‘Management of Electronic Traffic Equipment’ which provides good practice advice for local authorities on maintaining assets including traffic signals and associated equipment. This is published by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 25 to Question 73558 on Veterans: World War II, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of commemorating the contribution of British famers to national security (a) through their service in the Home Guard and (b) supervision of prisoners of war during the Second World War.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We have no current plans to create initiatives in respect of commemorating the role of British farmers in maintaining national security during the Second World War.

In May, Defra relaunched the Women’s Land Army and Timber Corps Scheme, a civilian veteran service medal scheme recognising those women volunteers who took on roles traditionally done by the men away at war by cultivating crops used to help feed the nation.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance his Department provides to transport operators on making toilets (a) accessible and (b) usable for people with a stoma.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department places accessible travel for disabled people among its highest priorities, as part of our broader commitment to breaking down barriers to opportunity. We are determined to deliver a transport network that puts passengers at its heart-enabling disabled people to travel easily, confidently and with dignity, including those with bowel conditions which require a stoma.

On rail, the Department publishes accessibility standards the industry must comply with whenever they install, replace or renew station toilets. This includes accessible toilets. Where toilets are provided on trains it is a legal requirement for operators to comply with the relevant accessibility standards. Given the importance of toilets to passenger comfort, operators should consider appropriate provision when procuring or refurbishing trains.

In aviation, regulation and guidance already exists in relation to the provision of accessible toilets that cater for all kinds of disabilities, for both airports and airlines. In addition, there is a requirement for industry to account for the needs of disabled passengers in the design and refurbishment of airports and aircraft.

In local transport, the provision and design of bus and coach stations, including accessible toilets, is a matter for local authorities, who should be mindful of their duties under the Equality Act 2010 when making relevant decisions.

Disabled people should be able to make journeys with confidence that transport infrastructure will meet their needs. This is why we are introducing a requirement, through the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill, for local authorities to pay regard to new statutory guidance on the safety and accessibility of bus station and stop design when providing new or upgrading existing facilities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to ensure equal access to stoma care across all regions of the UK.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to ensuring patients across the United Kingdom have equitable access to high quality care, including those who need stoma surgery. As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029.

Demand for stoma care services will vary across regions. Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning and assessing the quality and availability of stoma care services at a regional level and in accordance with their local populations’ health needs.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has as part of the motor insurance taskforce with representatives of the credit hire and mobility sector on its role in providing replacement vehicles to motorists post-accident.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Ministers and officials have discussions with a range of stakeholders concerning motor insurance matters.

The government’s Motor Insurance Taskforce, led by the Department for Transport and HM Treasury, is engaging with a range of interested stakeholders, including the Credit Hire Organisation.

The Taskforce plans to publish its final report in the autumn.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that credit hire providers serving vulnerable road users are represented in ongoing motor insurance policy discussions.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Ministers and officials have discussions with a range of stakeholders concerning motor insurance matters.

The government’s Motor Insurance Taskforce, led by the Department for Transport and HM Treasury, is engaging with a range of interested stakeholders, including the Credit Hire Organisation.

The Taskforce plans to publish its final report in the autumn.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that representatives of the credit hire and mobility sector are consulted before the Motor Insurance Taskforce concludes its work.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Ministers and officials have discussions with a range of stakeholders concerning motor insurance matters.

The government’s Motor Insurance Taskforce, led by the Department for Transport and HM Treasury, is engaging with a range of interested stakeholders, including the Credit Hire Organisation.

The Taskforce plans to publish its final report in the autumn.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the (a) quality and (b) availability of stoma care services.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to ensuring patients across the United Kingdom have access to high quality care, including those who need stoma surgery. As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029.

No recent assessment has been made about the quality and availability of stoma care services. Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning and assessing the quality and availability of stoma care services at a regional level and in accordance with their local populations’ health needs.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the cross-Government Motor Insurance Taskforce is maintaining a formal record of stakeholder engagement; and whether the Credit Hire Organisation was consulted.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The government’s Motor Insurance Taskforce, led by the Department for Transport and HM Treasury, is engaging with a range of interested stakeholders, including the Credit Hire Organisation.

The taskforce plans to publish its final report in the autumn.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the letter of 10 January 2025 from the then-Economic Secretary to the Treasury to Anthony Hughes of the Credit Hire Organisation, when her Department plans to meet representatives of the credit hire industry to discuss the Motor Insurance Taskforce.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The government’s Motor Insurance Taskforce, led by the Department for Transport and HM Treasury, is engaging with a range of interested stakeholders, including the Credit Hire Organisation.

The taskforce plans to publish its final report in the autumn.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) veterinary certification guidance, (b) trade missions and (c) inclusion in mentorship schemes on Lancashire producers.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

We will continue to work with Defra colleagues to support businesses and producers where appropriate.

Trade missions are promoted widely to companies in Lancashire through direct marketing and partners. Following the mission to Food & Hospitality China, in November 2024, Lancashire companies have forecast increased sales from new international business.

International Trade Advisers provide support for eligible businesses that require tailored advice to grow their international sales. DBT has seven Food & Drink Export Champions in the North, one of which is based in Lancashire.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has considered reviewing the standard police caution to include a reference to the potential impact of legal advice to remain silent on a defendant’s defence.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

A review of the standard police caution is not being considered for the reasons set out in my earlier answer to written question UIN 73157.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has consulted police forces on their capacity to implement changes to shotgun licensing procedures.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government response to the 2023 firearms licensing consultation published on 13 February this year, included a commitment to consult on strengthening the licensing controls on shotguns.

We will be undertaking a public consultation which will launch later this year. We will carefully consider the views put forward through this consultation in due course, which will include the possible impact of any changes on policing.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what role the Office of Defence Exports (ODE) will play in securing government-to-government defence export deals; and what targets have been set for the ODE in its first year.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

As the Defence Industrial Strategy makes clear “The new Office of Defence Exports (ODE) means responsibility for defence exports has been unified under the control of the MOD. This creates a government-to-government exports offer which reflects what our allies and our industry need”. The ODE will, therefore, play a central role in securing Government-to-Government defence export deals, working closely with Other Government Departments.

Design work for the Exports function is well underway. Initial stand up is expected no later than end October 2025 with full implementation – including the development of performance measures - continuing over the next 12 months.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what locations have been selected for the Defence Technical Excellence Colleges; and how will the £182 million investment in defence skills be distributed.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

No locations for Defence Technical Excellence Colleges have yet been chosen. They will be selected through a fair and transparent competition process, run by the Department for Education working with the Ministry of Defence. We expect the competition to be launched later this year. All general further education colleges in England will be able to apply, subject to meeting specific eligibility criteria. Further details on the process and criteria will be published in due course.

The Ministry of Defence, working with partners across Government, industry and the skills community, will oversee the £182 million investment to ensure the skills package is delivered effectively to boost skills in the sector.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will have discussions with (a) police forces and (b) rural stakeholders on the potential benefits of a (a) digitised and (b) centralised firearms licensing system.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government has no plans to introduce the centralisation of the firearms licensing process.

The Firearms Act 1968 places statutory responsibility for firearms licensing on the Chief Officer of Police of each individual force in England, Wales and Scotland.

This framework is supported by Statutory Guidance to Chief Officers of Police issued by the Home Secretary in respect of firearms licensing and by Authorised Professional Practice issued by the College of Policing.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what role local authorities have in regulating the timing of roadworks in residential areas; and whether they are empowered to enforce restrictions on noise and working hours.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Local highway authorities play a central role in regulating the timing of roadworks in residential areas. When utility companies apply for permits to carry out street works, authorities can attach conditions to those permits, including restrictions on working hours to help minimise disruption to residents. If a utility company breaches these conditions, the authority is empowered to issue fines under the relevant street works regulations.

Authorities also have discretion to schedule their own roadworks outside standard hours, particularly when traffic volumes are lower. Section 60 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 empowers local authorities to restrict noise from street works by setting permitted working hours, which are typically 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she will have discussions with the Solicitors Regulation Authority on standards of ethical behaviour of (a) solicitors’ and (b) barristers’ during (i) police interviews and (ii) court proceedings.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The legal profession and regulation of the profession in England and Wales operates independently of government. This framework is set out in the Legal Services Act 2007. Regulation of the sector is carried out by independent regulators, overseen by the Legal Services Board (LSB). The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales, while the Bar Standards Board (BSB) regulates barristers.

An independent legal services sector is a pillar of the rule of law. Accordingly, it would not be appropriate for ministers or their officials to seek to influence how individual solicitors or barristers are regulated.

Nevertheless, while ministers do not play any role in individual disciplinary matters, the Ministry of Justice maintains regular dialogue with the legal regulators in respect of their statutory functions. This ensures that regulatory independence is respected while also supporting the wider objective of protecting consumers and maintaining public confidence in the justice system.

Solicitors advising clients during police interviews or throughout court proceedings are bound by professional duties, as set out in the SRA’s Code of Conduct. Barristers are bound by the BSB Handbook, which requires them to act with honesty, integrity, and independence. Both regulators have powers to investigate allegations of professional misconduct and to take disciplinary action where necessary. For solicitors, this includes sanctions such as fines or referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which can suspend or strike a solicitor off the roll. The BSB can refer cases of professional misconduct to the independent Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service, whose Disciplinary Tribunal has powers to impose sanctions, including suspension or disbarment.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2025 to Question 72990 on Mobile Scooters: Safety, if he will publish the terms of the review.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

This review into the law on powered mobility devices will involve an in-depth investigation of the existing legal framework for the use of powered wheelchairs and mobility scooters on the roads and pavements in Great Britain, as well as the opportunities and risks of using modern technology safely and responsibly which consider the needs of all disabled people. It will not cover taxation, welfare, such as personal independence payments, or policing; nor will we seek changes to medical device regulations.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of recycling infrastructure in handling textile waste from fast fashion.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

While we do not hold any internal estimates on fast fashion waste volumes in the UK, industry partners provide some insight. WRAP estimates that the UK generated approximately 1.45 million tonnes of post-consumer textiles in 2022, which includes clothing, household linens and more. WRAP-Textiles-Market-Situation-Report-2024.pdf

WRAP does not isolate a proportion of this as fast fashion. However, they note that low-quality textile goods are saturating secondary markets, with the average person in the UK throwing 35 items of unwanted textiles straight into the general waste each year, demonstrating the fast turnover of clothing. The price of our addiction to cheap fast fashion as pressure builds on UK second hand clothing market | WRAP - The Waste and Resources Action Programme

Meanwhile, figures from BusinessWaste indicate that 300,000 tonnes of clothing waste enter household bins annually in the UK, with much of this likely being fast fashion. Fashion Waste Statistics & Facts | Textile & Clothing Waste Facts

The department hasn't made any recent assessments on the effectiveness of recycling infrastructure, however we continue to monitor evidence. Within the Circular Economy Strategy, the Government is developing policy measures to improve circularity in the textiles sector.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) access to stoma nurses, (b) psychological services and (c) home delivery of supplies does the NHS provide to people living with a stoma.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

National Health Service Talking Therapies Long Term Conditions Services provide evidence-based psychological therapies for people with depression and anxiety disorders, who also have a long-term physical health condition, such as those living with a stoma. All integrated care boards (ICBs) are expected to expand services locally by commissioning NHS Talking Therapies services integrated into physical healthcare pathways.

ICBs are legally responsible for commissioning the majority of health services, including stoma-related services like home delivery of supplies, in accordance with their populations’ health needs.

The Department does not hold the information requested on access to stoma nurses.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of people who have used Snapchat to purchase vape products spiked with the synthetic drug spice.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The National Crime Agency routinely assess the threats to the UK from serious and organised crime, including drugs supply. The Government is determined to tackle the sale of illegal drugs online, including those sold as vapes. We are taking a co-ordinated approach that includes law enforcement activity, stronger engagement with tech companies, better education for users so they understand the risks and harms; as well as requiring internet companies to take responsibility for their content.

The Online Safety Act 2023 requires internet companies to implement measures to protect their users and to remove illegal content from their platforms, including that related to the sale of illegal drugs. Ofcom, as the independent regulator, is monitoring compliance with the regime. And working with law enforcement, they are seeking to suppress the sale of drugs on the clear web and online platforms through strengthening platform accountability and disrupting online dealer tactics.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what safeguards are in place to ensure that facial recognition technology used in supermarkets does not contribute to discriminatory outcomes based on race, gender, age, or disability.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

FRT systems should not undermine people’s rights or discriminate unfairly. Under data protection law, organisations need to evaluate the risks to people and their rights deriving from the specific contexts. Supermarkets should be able to demonstrate that they have a lawful basis for the processing of personal data, and that its collection is limited to what is necessary. They must carry out Data Protection Impact Assessments, where there is a high risk to individuals’ rights and freedoms, including risks of bias or discrimination. Supermarkets must comply with the data protection principles of fairness, transparency and accountability when deploying FRT. The Information Commissioner’s Office has clarified that FRT involves the processing of biometric data which is likely to constitute special category data. The processing of such data is subject to additional safeguards under the law. If any significant decision has been made about an individual based solely on automated processing, they have a right to challenge such decision, obtain human intervention and make representations to the controller about them.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to (a) detect and (b) reduce the use of ghost number plates designed to evade Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The table below shows the number of occasions where members of the public have contacted the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) about correspondence, fines or penalties that they have received from third parties about the use of vehicles which they do not recognise or accept responsibility for.

It is important to clarify that these figures do not represent confirmed cases of number plate cloning. While some of these reports may relate to cloned number plates, others may result from administrative errors, such as incorrect entry of registration numbers.

The DVLA continues to work closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and other government departments to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime, including the use of cloned and ghost number plates.

Under UK law, suppliers of number plates must be registered with the DVLA and are required to verify that customers are entitled to the registration number. Suppliers must also maintain records of all plates issued.

The DVLA supports enforcement efforts by investigating reports of illegal trading and sharing intelligence with police and Trading Standards where appropriate.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how frequently drinking water is tested for compliance with (a) microbiological and (b) chemical safety standards.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The sampling frequency for drinking water is set out in Schedule 3 of The Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016 including which parameters are sampled at which point in the system, with some variation depending on factors such as treatment chemicals used, population served, etc.

There is also a requirement to monitor for anything else which may present a risk to health. The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) ensures that these requirements are met by companies, and may on occasion increase the sampling frequency if a specific risk is under investigation.

The DWI published a report on 26 February 2025 recommending revisions to some parameters listed in the drinking water regulations. The report is the output of work by an advisory group of specialists both UK and internationally. Defra and the DWI will work together to consider potential regulatory updates to England’s drinking water quality legislation based on the recommendations.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of public drinking water supplies met national quality standards in the most recent reporting year.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is committed to ensuring a high level of protection for human health and the environment. Public drinking water compliance with the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016 has been consistently high for a number of years, with a rate of 99.97% in 2024. This compares to compliance rates of between 98-98.5% in the early 1990s.

The DWI’s annual report on the quality of publicly supplied drinking water provides water companies, and also the public, with a picture of overall drinking water quality in England.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents of vehicle licence plate cloning were reported in each of the last five years.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The table below shows the number of occasions where members of the public have contacted the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) about correspondence, fines or penalties that they have received from third parties about the use of vehicles which they do not recognise or accept responsibility for.

It is important to clarify that these figures do not represent confirmed cases of number plate cloning. While some of these reports may relate to cloned number plates, others may result from administrative errors, such as incorrect entry of registration numbers.

The DVLA continues to work closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and other government departments to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime, including the use of cloned and ghost number plates.

Under UK law, suppliers of number plates must be registered with the DVLA and are required to verify that customers are entitled to the registration number. Suppliers must also maintain records of all plates issued.

The DVLA supports enforcement efforts by investigating reports of illegal trading and sharing intelligence with police and Trading Standards where appropriate.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure equitable regional distribution of defence investment under the new Defence Industrial Strategy.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Defence Industrial Strategy contains a number of policy offerings designed to support and bolster the defence industrial base across the nations and regions of the UK. This includes the five Defence Growth Deals that were announced in Plymouth, South Yorkshire, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Defence Growth Deals are just one element of the commitment we have made to the nations and regions of the UK and the Defence Investment Plan which will be published this autumn, will work to ensure that defence is investing in the most appropriate way to support defence and defence-adjacent companies and deliver growth for the whole of the UK.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for using (i) ghost and (ii) cloned licence plates in each of the last five years.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for a wide range of offences, including offences relating to motor vehicle licence, trade licence, registration mark, trade plate and registration book offences (except forgery and deception offences) (MOT) in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK.

However, it is not possible to identify specifically offences relating to ghost or clone licensing. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of the increase in illegal working arrests involved people who had originally entered the UK on work visas.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

The government takes illegal working very seriously, and we are determined to clamp down on the employment of individuals with no right to work in the UK.

The specific information requested is not readily available from published statistics and could only be obtained for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what criteria his Department used to select Plymouth and South Yorkshire as the initial locations for Defence Growth Deals.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The five Defence Growth Deals announced on 8 September 2025 by the Secretary of State for Defence covering Plymouth, South Yorkshire, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland were assessed using a criteria that looked at the Defence Industrial Base and Ecosystem, the area’s strategic importance to defence, including strengths in specific D Industrial Strategy sub-sectors. It looked at Strategic Location and alignment with existing HMG regional growth initiatives. Finally it looked at Growth Potential such as measures to boost local productivity (e.g., training, R&D) and the overall labour market.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what technologies are employed by law enforcement agencies to identify vehicles using (a) ghost and (b) cloned licence plates; and what plans her Department has to (i) improve and (ii) expand such capabilities.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

Police and law enforcement agencies use the National Automated Numberplate Recognition (ANPR) Capability and associated technologies to detect and respond to criminal use of ghost and cloned licence plates.

The Government will continue to support the police to ensure they have the tools needed to enforce road traffic legislation to tackle crime.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many enforcement actions have been taken against water companies for breaches of drinking water quality standards in each of the last three years.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is committed to ensuring that drinking water supplies remain safe and reliable. The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) regulates the industry and takes enforcement action where they or the companies identify a risk of failing to meet their obligations under the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016, to mitigate against future breaches.

This information is published annually as part of the DWI’s Chief Inspector’s Report.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities and coastal agencies in ensuring public safety during periods of increased jellyfish activity along the coast of Fylde constituency.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Responsibility for safety on the beach sits with the local authority or beach owner.

In conjunction with other services HM Coastguard provides safety advice and guidance about the coastal environment.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the updated guidance for emergency authorisations of pesticides will apply retrospectively to applications submitted in 2024.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The updated guidance for emergency authorisations of pesticides was published on 11 September 2025. It does not apply retrospectively to applications submitted prior to that date, including any submitted in 2024.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is considering legislative options to permanently ban all uses of neonicotinoid pesticides.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

As set out in December’s neonicotinoid policy statement, Defra will identify and assess legislative options to prevent future use of three neonicotinoid pesticides (clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam) that are not authorised due to the threat they pose to pollinators.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how applications for emergency authorisation of banned neonicotinoids will be assessed under the new guidance; and whether an independent scientific advisory committee will be involved in the decision-making process.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The new guidance applies to emergency authorisation applications for all pesticides, not just neonicotinoids. When considering applications, the possible adverse effects of the pesticide are weighed against the potential benefits of its use. Applicants must provide clear evidence on the benefits of pesticide use and the potential risks to people, animals and the environment if authorisation is granted.

The guidance states that the decision-maker may seek independent advice on scientific aspects of applications for emergency authorisation. A key source of advice is the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides, which provides independent scientific advice on the regulation of pesticides.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provides to (a) NHS local health boards and (b) trusts on treating jellyfish stings.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The General Medical Council sets the overall standards and outcomes for medical training, and the Royal Colleges develop the specific curricula for each medical specialty.

The Department does not provide guidance to National Health Service trusts or integrated care boards on this topic. Patient-facing information on how to treat jellyfish stings is already available on the NHS website.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, what steps her Department has taken to introduce (a) clearer and (b) fairer leasehold practices.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 puts an end to ground rents for most new long residential leasehold properties in England and Wales.

Ground rents have already been banned for most new residential long leases. This prevents landlords requiring a leaseholder to pay a financial ground rent. From 30 June 2022, if any ground rent is demanded as part of a new residential long lease it is regulated by that Act and cannot be for more than one peppercorn per year.  This limit for ground rent also applies to retirement homes for which the provisions came into force on 1 April 2023.

The government remains firmly committed to its manifesto commitment to tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, and we will deliver this in legislation.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to review the processes for adoption of (a) roads and (b) common areas on estates where the developer has become insolvent.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Decisions on whether or not to adopt roads is a matter for the relevant local highway authority.

Land may become ‘ownerless’ where a developer has become insolvent. The Law Commission announced on 4 September 2025 that they will undertake a project on ownerless land as part of their 14th Programme of Law Reform, which will aim to clarify the law in this area. As part of their 14th Programme, the Law Commission are also undertaking a project on the management of freehold housing estates. Details of both projects can be found on the Law Commission website here.

The government is determined to end the injustice of 'fleecehold' entirely and we will consult this year on options to reduce the prevalence of private estate management arrangements, which are the root cause of the problems experienced by many residential freeholders.

I otherwise refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS2440).

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has received representations on inconsistencies in legal requirements for indemnity insurance on similar properties within the same estate; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of those practices on sellers’ (a) costs and (b) conveyancing outcomes.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Department has not received representations on the specific issue in question.

On 9 February 2025, the government announced action to improve the availability of property information through digitalisation. This will help transactions run more smoothly by ensuring all parties are able to access the information they need at the right time. We continue to work with stakeholders across industry as we consider next steps.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the economic impact of pollinator decline on UK agriculture.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

There have been no recent assessments of the economic impact of pollinator decline on UK agriculture. Abundant pollinators are an essential part of maintaining sustainable food production and we will provide farmers and land managers with the support they need to help restore nature, vital to safeguarding our long-term food security, support productivity and building resilience to climate change.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how the £500 million estimate of the value of pollination services to UK agriculture was calculated.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Bees and other pollinators play an essential role in our £100 billion food industry. The latest estimated value of insect pollination on UK crops fruit, vegetable and oil seed rape production is around £630 million per year. This estimate is based on increases in yield and market quality. It was produced through field and desk-based research undertaken by the University of Reading and other researchers, who estimated the potential deficits in crop yield and quality without (or with reduced) insect pollination services, and related this to market value.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department provide to (a) local authorities and (b) the police on the reassessment of exempted dogs where owners believe the dogs were wrongly classified as XL Bully type.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We are currently working to develop a withdrawal scheme so that owners who no longer believe that their dog is an XL Bully can apply to have their certificate of exemption for their dog withdrawn. Information about this process will be available soon.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a mechanism allowing dog owners to apply for the un-exemption of dogs previously exempted as XL Bully type.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We are currently working to develop a withdrawal scheme so that owners who no longer believe that their dog is an XL Bully can apply to have their certificate of exemption for their dog withdrawn. Information about this process will be available soon.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to recognise the historic contribution of British farmers to the war effort through (a) public commemoration, (b) heritage funding and (c) other methods.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In May, Defra relaunched the Women’s Land Army and Timber Corps Scheme, a civilian veteran service medal scheme recognising those women volunteers who took on roles traditionally done by the men away at war by cultivating crops used to help feed the nation.

We recognise the vital role that farmers play putting food on our plates and caring for our countryside. The Government is committed to supporting British farmers by strengthening food security, increasing farm profitability, and protecting our environment for future generations.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will provide a breakdown of Government spending on advertising via social media platforms broken down by Department, over the last 12 months.

Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

As with any media planning approach, channels are selected based on their ability to engage with relevant audiences in alignment with the government's strategic objectives.

The Cabinet Office is consistently tracking and reviewing spending on communications to ensure efficiency and that the appropriate strategy is implemented. We will not spend more than is needed to be effective and ensure best value for the taxpayer.

Please see the breakdown below of spend on social media broken down by department between 1st August 2024 and 31st July 2025.

Please note that this may not be the complete spend as the Cabinet Office does not centrally manage Departmental social media spend directly.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which countries have had access to UK visas restricted due to non-compliance with migrant return agreements; and what criteria were used in these decisions.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Visa penalties, as outlined in section 70 of Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (Nationality And Borders Act 2022), may be imposed on a country which, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, does not cooperate with the UK in relation to the return of its nationals who do not have a legal right to be in the UK.

These provisions have not been used since their introduction in 2022. But we will use all levers available to ensure the removal of those with no right to remain in the UK, including visa penalties where necessary, and will do whatever it takes to secure the UK’s border.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department will consider supporting initiatives to commemorate the role of British farmers in maintaining food security during the Second World War.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In May, Defra relaunched the Women’s Land Army and Timber Corps Scheme, a civilian veteran service medal scheme recognising those women volunteers who took on roles traditionally done by the men away at war by cultivating crops used to help feed the nation.

We recognise the vital role that farmers play putting food on our plates and caring for our countryside. The Government is committed to supporting British farmers by strengthening food security, increasing farm profitability, and protecting our environment for future generations.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to respond to the outbreak of bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3) in the UK.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra’s approach to bluetongue virus (BTV) considers the latest scientific evidence and veterinary advice and aim to limit the spread of infection through proportionate and evidence-based control measures with the aim of slowing the spread of disease through movement controls while safe and effective vaccines were developed.   On 1st July 2025 the restricted zone for bluetongue was extended to cover all of England. Susceptible animals can now move freely within England without a specific bluetongue licence or pre-movement testing. This change was implemented because the movement controls were no longer proportionate or effective.

Disease control is a devolved matter. Defra works closely with the Devolved Governments with the aim of providing, where possible, a consistent and coordinated response across the UK.

Vaccination remains the most effective long-term approach for reducing the impacts of bluetongue disease throughout the UK. Defra has permitted the use of vaccines for BTV-3 and these vaccines are now available for vets to prescribe in England.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) monitor and (b) help control the spread of Culicoides midges, the vectors of bluetongue virus serotype 3, in high-risk areas.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra’s bluetongue disease control measures aim to limit the spread of BTV infection through proportionate and evidence-based control measures, whilst balancing the burdens of controls against the benefits of slowing the spread of bluetongue and minimising the cost of any outbreak both to Government and farmers.

Vector control is not an effective control measure and vaccination remains the most effective long-term approach for reducing the impacts of bluetongue disease throughout the UK. Defra has permitted the use of vaccines for BTV-3 and these vaccines are now widely available for vets to prescribe in England.

The Government conducts annual targeted surveillance for BTV. This is designed to detect new serotypes of bluetongue virus, including BTV-12 that may be circulating. The annual surveillance uses diagnostic testing protocols at the bluetongue national reference laboratory, The Pirbright Institute, that can detect and differentiate between different serotypes of bluetongue virus including BTV-12.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure that Lancashire cheesemakers can access the benefits of the new Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement on equal terms with other UK artisan exporters.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We will agree a Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement to make agrifood trade with our biggest market cheaper and easier, cutting costs and red tape for British producers and retailers. GB goods such as dairy are currently subject to 100% documentary checks and up to 30% physical checks when exported to the EU. An SPS deal will see these removed entirely.

We are committed to working closely with businesses across the UK to ensure they are able to take advantage of the benefits the Agreement will provide.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, with reference to the oral answer to the hon. Member for Fylde of 4 September 2025, Official Report, column 435, in which areas the pilot schemes of weekly listing meetings are being run; and if he will make it his policy to publish the outcomes of those schemes.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

This Government is working hard to reduce the court backlog through record number of sitting days in courts and record investment as part of the Spending Review.

The following Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Areas have regular meetings with Police Witness Care Units and court centres: East Midlands, North West, South East, West Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside, East of England, London South, Mersey-Cheshire, North East, Thames and Chiltern and SEOCID International, London and South East Division.

These meetings are informal and provide opportunities to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of trials.

The CPS is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and HM Courts & Tribunals Service to identify and potentially scale up best practice and has recently conducted a survey in collaboration with both with the aim of creating a national operating model in the future.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to pause or review court digitisation efforts in light of the reported failures in HMCTS IT systems.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether any (a) HMCTS and (b) Ministry of Justice staff have been subject to disciplinary investigation in connection with the handling of the IT system failures.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to overhaul the governance and oversight structures of HMCTS.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will publish a list of all organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management software systems.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of data corruption on judicial decisions made in (a) civil, (b) family and (c) tribunal courts following the HMCTS IT bug.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will publish the internal HMCTS report leaked to the BBC regarding the case management software failures.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she has taken to notify people whose cases may have been impacted by missing or corrupted evidence due to the IT failures.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what procedures are in place to ensure that known IT failures affecting evidence handling are promptly disclosed to judges and legal professionals.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has made an estimate of how many child protection cases were impacted by missing documents reported in 2023.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases in the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal have been reviewed following the discovery of the IT system bug.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what mechanisms exist for whistleblowers within HMCTS to report concerns about IT system flaws and their impact on justice.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Given the important and sensitive work undertaken across the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions, and the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal in particular, it is entirely understandable that there will be concern at reports of an IT bug. It is important to reaffirm the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to a fair, open, and transparent justice system. Public trust in our courts is paramount, and any suggestion that this trust may have been compromised is taken extremely seriously.

There is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. However, actions are underway by HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the technical error has not resulted in adverse outcomes or materially influenced judicial decisions. Recognising the importance of the effective running of HMCTS’s digital case managements systems, a technical fix was applied as a priority within the relevant jurisdictions with the final fix applied in January 2025.

In 2023, under the previous Government, HMCTS identified that a technical issue in the Civil, Family and Tribunals case management system was having an impact on some services because of the way that services were interacting with the Core Case Data (CCD) database. This technical issue had the potential to cause some documents and data fields to be hidden from view in certain cases across Civil, Family, and Tribunal jurisdictions.

Following a risk-based assessment, HMCTS initially undertook targeted investigations, which have since been significantly expanded. In Tribunals, the area affected was SSCS cases. In recent weeks, HMCTS has carried out additional work which has continued to assure that the technical issue was indeed of very low incidence and confirmed that there is no evidence of any impact on case outcomes to date. Further assurance work is ongoing.

In Civil and Family jurisdictions, no impact on judicial decisions has been identified to date. In Family Public Law, operational mitigations – such as local authorities supplying full bundles directly to the court – reduce the risk of missing documents on the CCD system affecting case outcomes.

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, further re-assurance work is still under way. Any further steps will be determined and communicated to parties should this work identify any cases of concern.

HMCTS follows established escalation protocols to ensure that technical issues are assessed and, where appropriate, disclosed to judges and legal professionals. In light of this episode, Ministers have asked that these processes are strengthened, including improvements to incident management and governance structures to update the risk assessment criteria on which HMCTS considers communication about technical problems to relevant affected partners or users, and strengthening the systematic handling of cross-cutting or architectural risks.

HMCTS staff can raise concerns through internal whistleblowing channels, which are managed independently and in line with departmental policy. All concerns are investigated and escalated appropriately.

The internal report referenced in media coverage was part of a whistleblowing investigation conducted in line with Ministry of Justice policies. In line with standard practice, we do not publish internal HR and whistleblowing reports. Likewise, it would not be appropriate to comment on questions about specific internal disciplinary investigations, other than to confirm that departmental policy and process are followed as required.

There are no plans to pause court digitisation. While technical challenges are an inevitable part of digital transformation, they are investigated and triaged according to risk. We are continuing to digitise and improve our services to support swift access to justice.

Over the span of the HMCTS Reform Programme there will have been many organisations involved in the development of the HMCTS case management systems, of which there are several. Major delivery partners are listed in Reform Programme documentation and procurement records, which are publicly available. The main suppliers which have worked on the development of the Civil, Family and Tribunals Platform (that includes Core Case Data) during the period of 2016 to present are:

• Atos

• Capgemini

• CGI

• Cognizant

• Methods

• PA Consulting

• Scrumconnect

• Transform UK

• Solirius Consulting

• Version 1

This includes the provision of any services in the development of the case management system, such as: development, quality assurance testing, architecture, user-centred design, data architecture, delivery management amongst others.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September to Question 75385 on Greta Thunberg, whether public expressions of support for the proscribed terrorist group Palestine Action are considered relevant to an assessment under Part 9 of the Immigration Rules for refusal of entry to the UK.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

A person does not need to have a criminal conviction to be refused admission on non-conducive grounds. Examples of where a person’s presence may be non-conducive to the public good include where the person is a threat to national security, including involvement in terrorism and membership of proscribed organisation, or where the person has engaged in extremism or other unacceptable behaviour, such as the glorification of terrorism.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of visa sponsor licence revocations were (a) subsequently overturned and (b) appealed successfully from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

The Home Office does publish data on the numbers of sponsor licences that are suspended and revoked each year and can be found under the Sponsorship Transparency Data heading at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the threshold for reopening cases under the exception to the double jeopardy rule introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Government recognises the fundamental importance of the rule against double jeopardy, as well as the need, in exceptional cases, to correct serious miscarriages of justice. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 permits a retrial only in cases involving the most serious offences, and only where new and compelling evidence becomes available. Such retrials require an application from the Director of Public Prosecutions and approval from the Court of Appeal, ensuring that any retrial serves the interests of justice. This framework is used very rarely and is designed to maintain an appropriate balance between the principles of finality and fairness. The Government keeps the law under review but has no current plans to lower or otherwise revise this high threshold.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2025 to Question 74887 on Retail Trade: Health and Safety, whether his Department has received representations from (a) trade unions, (b) retail employers and (c) lone workers on concerns about safety (i) at the Co-op and (ii) in other retail environments.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Health and Safety Executive have not had any discussions with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade or received any representations from trade unions concerning Project Lunar. Project Lunar is an internal policy that the Co-op is introducing, so it is not a matter for HSE or the government to be involved in.

Under health and safety law it is the employer (Co-op) who is responsible for protecting its employees and others from harm. The employer must identify the risks and take action to eliminate them, or if this is not possible, to control the risk. An employer must manage any health and safety risks before people can work alone.

HSE and Local Authorities (LAs) work together as co-regulatory partners to enforce health and safety law, with LAs being responsible for regulation of health and safety in most retail businesses. Both HSE and LAs provide advice and guidance on the management of risk and what the law requires, conduct inspections and investigations, and take enforcement action where appropriate.

Any correspondence received by HSE raising workplace health and safety concerns is fully assessed, and subsequent actions can include, providing advice or guidance, further investigation or referral to another regulator where appropriate.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2025 to Question 74887 on Retail Trade: Health and Safety, how his Department assesses whether (a) employers and (b) local authorities are effectively managing risks for lone workers in these environments.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Health and Safety Executive have not had any discussions with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade or received any representations from trade unions concerning Project Lunar. Project Lunar is an internal policy that the Co-op is introducing, so it is not a matter for HSE or the government to be involved in.

Under health and safety law it is the employer (Co-op) who is responsible for protecting its employees and others from harm. The employer must identify the risks and take action to eliminate them, or if this is not possible, to control the risk. An employer must manage any health and safety risks before people can work alone.

HSE and Local Authorities (LAs) work together as co-regulatory partners to enforce health and safety law, with LAs being responsible for regulation of health and safety in most retail businesses. Both HSE and LAs provide advice and guidance on the management of risk and what the law requires, conduct inspections and investigations, and take enforcement action where appropriate.

Any correspondence received by HSE raising workplace health and safety concerns is fully assessed, and subsequent actions can include, providing advice or guidance, further investigation or referral to another regulator where appropriate.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2025 to Question 74887 on Retail Trade: Health and Safety, whether (a) he and (b) the Health and Safety Executive has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade on Co-op's Project Lunar.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Health and Safety Executive have not had any discussions with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade or received any representations from trade unions concerning Project Lunar. Project Lunar is an internal policy that the Co-op is introducing, so it is not a matter for HSE or the government to be involved in.

Under health and safety law it is the employer (Co-op) who is responsible for protecting its employees and others from harm. The employer must identify the risks and take action to eliminate them, or if this is not possible, to control the risk. An employer must manage any health and safety risks before people can work alone.

HSE and Local Authorities (LAs) work together as co-regulatory partners to enforce health and safety law, with LAs being responsible for regulation of health and safety in most retail businesses. Both HSE and LAs provide advice and guidance on the management of risk and what the law requires, conduct inspections and investigations, and take enforcement action where appropriate.

Any correspondence received by HSE raising workplace health and safety concerns is fully assessed, and subsequent actions can include, providing advice or guidance, further investigation or referral to another regulator where appropriate.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support councils to improve the availability of activities for young people during (a) evenings, (b) weekends and (c) school holidays.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

In 2025/26, DCMS is investing £28 million to increase young people’s access to more and better enriching activities. This includes programmes such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Uniformed Youth Fund. As part of the Uniformed Youth Fund, DCMS funded the Volunteer Police Cadets to increase its capacity and reach a greater number of young people in Fylde.

DCMS is also investing £8 million to support local authorities through the Local Youth Transformation Pilot, which aims to rebuild a high-quality offer for young people across England.

Additionally, the Department for Education has confirmed over £600 million for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme for the next three financial years (from 2026/27), delivered by local authorities to provide healthy meals, enriching activities, and free childcare places to children from low-income families during school holiday periods.

In Autumn, we will publish the National Youth Strategy, which we have co-produced with young people and the sector. The Strategy will outline a long-term vision for young people and an action plan for delivering this.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve the availability of activities for young people during (a) evenings, (b) weekends and (c) school holidays.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

In 2025/26, DCMS is investing £28 million to increase young people’s access to more and better enriching activities. This includes programmes such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Uniformed Youth Fund. As part of the Uniformed Youth Fund, DCMS funded the Volunteer Police Cadets to increase its capacity and reach a greater number of young people in Fylde.

DCMS is also investing £8 million to support local authorities through the Local Youth Transformation Pilot, which aims to rebuild a high-quality offer for young people across England.

Additionally, the Department for Education has confirmed over £600 million for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme for the next three financial years (from 2026/27), delivered by local authorities to provide healthy meals, enriching activities, and free childcare places to children from low-income families during school holiday periods.

In Autumn, we will publish the National Youth Strategy, which we have co-produced with young people and the sector. The Strategy will outline a long-term vision for young people and an action plan for delivering this.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how the UK Emergency Alert System integrates with (a) local authority and (b) regional emergency response plans.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The emergency services, whose role is to warn, inform and advise the public in the event of an emergency have the Emergency Alerting capability available to them 24/7/365 upon request. The established procedures have been closely designed alongside both national and regional emergency response plans.

Regular training is undertaken with local authorities, local resilience forums, and emergency services to familiarise them with the Emergency Alert capability and requesting processes.

Emergency Alerts are just one of many capabilities available to first responders on the ground to assist them in disseminating vital information and guidance, complementing a wide range of tools at the disposal of emergency services for communicating risks to life for example local news, radio, television, social media, or door knocking.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions his Department has had with mobile network operators on the (a) resilience and (b) reliability of mobile infrastructure to deliver emergency alerts during (i) power outages and (ii) network congestion.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Emergency Alerts capability is reliant on mobile network operators’ infrastructure to issue alerts. Under the Communications Act 2003 and Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, UK communications providers have a statutory requirement to take appropriate and proportionate steps to identify risks to their resilience, reduce those risks, prepare for compromises and mitigate and remedy them when they do occur. These requirements are overseen by Ofcom. The Department has regular discussions with the UK’s mobile network operators and works in partnership with communications providers to ensure that their networks remain secure, resilient, and accessible, including during emergencies.